Buffy's Immortality
by Sunshine Aradia
Summary: This is my Buffy and Highlander Crossover. How Buffy learned of her Immortality
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I do not own Highlander or Buffy, unfortunately. The reason I wrote this story is not for monetary value, but for entertainment only.  
Prologue  
The memory is still crystal clear in my mind like the day it became a memory.  
  
He was kneeling in front of me as Angelus, me with the sword ready to chop off his head.  
  
The next moment he was Angel, doubled over in pain. He looked up into my eyes and whispered my name. "Buffy?" Then he clasped me around my waist and I stood there with tears in my eyes. He stood up and we kissed.  
  
Then I looked over his shoulder and my eyes widened.  
  
The vortex had opened. Acathla's mouth was opened and the vortex was huge behind Angel. I kissed him and told him I loved him.  
  
"Close your eyes," I said. He looked confused, but complied to what I said.  
  
I drew back the sword I still held in my hands, shoved it through his chest and into his heart.  
  
Tendrils of flame shot out of the vortex, curling around Angel and the sword, pulling him into Hell.  
  
***  
  
I stood in front of Sunnydale High School, watching life go on as it normally would.  
  
I watched Xander, Willow, Giles, Oz, and Cordelia meet up outside the school, obviously waiting for me, but I couldn't face them right now.  
  
I turned around and walked to the bus station.  
  
***  
  
'You are leaving Sunnydale. Hope you join us again.' I read the sign as I went by it in the bus. I had decided on Seacouver to start my life over, if my past decided not to follow me.  
  
*** 


	2. Chapter One

Disclaimer: I do not own Highlander or Buffy, unfortunately. The reason I wrote this story is not for monetary value, but for entertainment only.  
  
'You are now entering Seacouver. Enjoy your stay.' Buffy read the sign as she sat on the bus entering Seacouver.  
  
She had decided on the long bus ride that she would continue with her Slaying duties here in Seacouver.  
  
She remembered Giles telling her once that Seacouver had the least population of vampires. Maybe, if possible, she could keep a low profile with her Slaying duties.  
  
She had no more time to think about things like that now, because the bus had pulled into the station.  
  
***  
  
While walking around Seacouver, she realized that no one would hire a seventeen-year-old with no working papers or driver's license.  
  
Still, she had to find something.  
  
***  
  
A few nights later she was still working on getting a job.  
  
She could afford to feed herself for about a week with the small amount of cash that she had.  
  
She didn't have a place to stay, so she slept in the park with Mr. Pointy close at hand.  
  
***  
  
Just like Giles had said, there weren't a lot of vampires here. Buffy killed maybe one a night, unlike in Sunnydale, where she had been killing five or six at a time.  
  
Buffy didn't know what else to do. She was almost out of money and nowhere to stay.  
  
Just then she came up to a dojo. There was a sign in the door. 'Help Wanted. See Management.'  
  
Buffy took a deep breath and checked her appearance. Then she walked inside, hoping the job was still open.  
  
***  
  
Duncan stood in his dojo, practicing with his sword. He brought it up and around in a wide arch.  
  
Suddenly, his Immortal senses told him there was an Immortal nearby. Probably in the dojo.  
  
He pulled on his shirt quickly. It had been an Immortal he'd never felt before.  
  
He kept his sword with him, ready for an attack, and listened as he heard light footsteps coming up the stairs.  
  
Suddenly, a girl appeared at the top of the stairs. She lookd to be about sixteen-years-old, but looks didn't mean anything. She could be four hundred.  
  
***  
  
When Buffy saw him, her Slayer senses started going crazy. But he couldn't be a vampire. The windows had no covering at all. She wondered what he was.  
  
***  
  
"Hello, I'm here to see about the job," the girl started tentatively.  
  
"Hello. Do you know what the job entails?" Duncan asked the girl. No need to frighten her and, anyways, she hadn't attacked him. Her appearance looked a little rumpled, but other than that she looked healthy. She had a gym bag resting by the strap on her shoulder.  
  
"No, not exactly. I just came to Seacouver a week ago," she said. "My name is Buffy Summers."  
  
"Duncan MacLeod. Well, Buffy, what are your talents?"  
  
"Well, I can type and file papers, if I have to. I am also an expert in martial arts, the crossbow, and throwing things with deadly precision." Buffy said, rattling off her abilities.  
  
Duncan figured at least the last two were meant to be a joke.  
  
Testing her, he brought up his right hand to punch her in the shoulder.  
  
However, Buffy proved to him that she did know the martial arts. She blocked his punch with her left forearm, used her right hand to come up and under to hit him in the abdomen. When he blocked that punch, she crouched down and removed his legs from beneath him.  
  
This went on for quite a whil and when Duncan had almost crowded her into a corner of the room, she jumped, did a tuck somersault over his heand, and landed on the other side.  
  
Duncan finally called a halt to the fight. "How well do you fight with a sword?"  
  
At that, Buffy shut right down. "Well enough." she answered.  
  
Duncan saw tears start to fill her eyes, but she faught them back down. 'Something must have happened.'  
  
"So," Buffy asked, "do I have the job?"  
  
"Well . . ." Duncan thought about it, then said, "okay. Follow me into my office. I'll tell you what the job includes."  
  
***  
  
Half an hour later, Buffy was sitting in her new bedroom. It was smaller than the one in her . . . she didn't finish the thought. Anyway, the room was just fine for her. And the job was cool. It included room and board, and all she had to do on the job was work with Duncan and his students and file some papers.  
  
Buffy went and told Duncan she was going out for an hour and left on her nightly vampire watch.  
  
***  
  
'I wonder where she went,' Duncan though an hour later when Buffy came in. He also wondered if she knew she was an Immortal and how old she was.  
  
*** 


	3. Chapter Two

Disclaimer: I do not own Highlander or Buffy, unfortunately. The reason I wrote this story is not for monetary value, but for entertainment only.  
  
A week after Buffy had accepted the job, Duncan began to recognize a pattern. Each night, at about 10:00, Buffy would go out for about two to three hours and come in and train for an hour alone then went to bed and got up early.  
  
He wanted to know what her ability with a sword was. He would find out tomorrow.  
  
***  
  
Buffy know she wouldn't be able to keep SOME information away from him for long.  
  
So after the last person leaves on Friday, Buffy decided, I'll tell him.  
  
***  
  
Duncan walked up to Buffy on Friday afternoon with his special sword and another sword in hand.  
  
"Buffy, I need to know something. To be able to fully help me train my students, I need to know how well you use a sword so I'll know when to start training you as well as my students."  
  
Buffy's back had been turned to him, but he could see them slump in grief.  
  
When she turned to him, he could see the despair in her eyes.  
  
"Fine," Buffy said quietly. "Let's do it."  
  
And so, for the next few hours, Buffy showed him what she knew.  
  
She was better than almost anyone he knew. The only person who beat her was Connor Macleod, his fellow kinsman. She even managed to trap him into a corner a few times.  
  
Duncan finally called a stop at nine o'clock. They had been sparring almost four hours. She wouldn't need much training at all.  
  
"Thanks. I needed that." Buffy said, short of breath, as they walked to the kitchen. "You're better than Giles was."  
  
"Giles? Who's that? An ex-boyfriend?" Duncan couldn't help but ask.  
  
"Giles? No way!" Buffy exclaimed, horrified. Then her face settled into a very sad expression. "He was more like a father to me. In the two years I knew him, he taught me most of what I know."  
  
Duncan thought about that. "Do you think you could come with me tomorrow? I have to pick a friend of mine up at the airport."  
  
"Sure, but right now, I have to book it." Buffy said, grabbing the leather jacket she wore wherever she went.  
  
*** 


	4. Chapter Three

Disclaimer: I do not own Highlander or Buffy, unfortunately. The reason I wrote this story is not for monetary value, but for entertainment only.  
  
The next morning arrived quickly, with Buffy still feeling run down from the night before.  
  
Buffy and Duncan left for the airport at eleven to pick up Duncan's friend.  
  
***  
  
At the airport, Duncan and Buffy were on the lookout. For totally different reasons.  
  
Suddenly, they both stopped moving. They had both sensed something although only Duncan knew it was an Immortal.  
  
Duncan and Buffy turned around at the same time.  
  
"Ritchie," Duncan said enthusiastically to the young man who had come up behind them. "Ritchie, this is my new employee and student, Buffy Summers."  
  
Ritchie's eyes shot to Duncan's and a wealth of imformation was shared between the two.  
  
"Enchanté, mademoiselle," Ritchie said charmingly as they left the airport.  
  
***  
  
Back at the dojo later that day, Buffy was in her room watching Scooby Doo on Cartoon Network, while Ritchie and Duncan talked in the office.  
  
"So? What do you know about her?" Ritchie asked his best friend of ten years. "All I know about her is that she's an Immortal."  
  
"Well, I know that, plus I know she's a superb fighter and she handles a sword as if she had been using one all her life."  
  
"Well, that's certainly a font of nothing." Ritchie said.  
  
"She has only one really unusual habit, other than the fact of her looking depressed all the time. Every night, she leaves here at ten o'clock and returns two or three hours later."  
  
"You don't know where she goes? You're slacking off, old man."  
  
"I was waiting for you. Follow her tonight. Tell me what's going on."  
  
"You got it, Mac."  
  
***  
  
That night when Buffy left, Ritchie wasn't far behind.  
  
Buffy walked through the back alleys around the different bars. There were only a handful in Seacouver. Suddenly, Bufy found what she was looking for. A vampire.  
  
The guy Ritchie saw had a beautiful, young woman, probably in her early twenties. 'What is Buffy doing here?' Ritchie thought to himself.  
  
"Hey! Big, dead, and ugly!" Buffy called out. "Over here!"  
  
The guy looked up and Ritchie went into shock. 'What the h*ll is that?' he thought when he saw the guy's ridged forehead and sharp teeth as he snarled at Buffy.  
  
"Who are you?" the guy growled.  
  
"You mean I'm actually in a place where no one knows who I am? I've been here for two weeks and you people STILL don't know."  
  
"Wait a minute. Us around here had word that the Slayer had left Sunnydale. No! You can't be her."  
  
"Guess what? I am." Buffy said, then started using the guy as her own personal punching bag. Then Buffy pulled something out of her boot and stabbed it into the creature's chest. He stood there for a second, with the stake in his chest, then disappeared in a cloud of dust.  
  
***  
  
Buffy had known he was following her and she hadn't cared. Finally she was being found out.  
  
But she didn't call out to him like she ordinarily would have if someone else was following her. She wanted Ritchie and Mac to know.  
  
She turned around and went back to MacLeod's.  
  
*** 


	5. Chapter Four

Disclaimer: I do not own Highlander or Buffy, unfortunately. The reason I wrote this story is not for monetary value, but for entertainment only.  
  
"Well, Ritchie? What did you find out?" MacLeod asked as Ritchie came in the office that same night.  
  
"Did you ever have something happen right before your eyes and you know it was real, but you didn't want to believe it?" Ritchie asked as he threw himself into one of the chairs in the office.  
  
Duncan thought back to nine years before. "Yes."  
  
Ritchie realized suddenly what he had asked and said, "Sorry, Mac. But I saw something really wierd tonight."  
  
"Tell me everything."  
  
***  
  
"And then he just exploded into dust. Just like that!" Ritchie said at last.  
  
Duncan was quiet. 'So. That's how she became so good. She's a Slayer. I haven't seen one in about a century.'  
  
"Mac? Are you with me, Mac?" Ritchie called to him, popping him out of his silent reverie.  
  
"Oh, you mentioned the creature called her the Slayer? I've heard tales of a Slayer, but I haven't seen one in the past hundred or so years."  
  
"You mean she could be centuries old? D*mn!"  
  
"There's a tale I heard from Cassandra one time. You remember her, the Immortal prophetess?" Duncan asked Ritchie.  
  
"Yeah, who could forget?"  
  
"Well, she once told me that when one Slayer dies, the next is called. So it could be possible that she's not that old."  
  
"Well, we have to find out soon." Ritchie said. "I'll see if I can locate her school records on the Internet." Ritchie sat down behind the computer and started typing away.  
  
***  
  
'There they go.' she thought to herself. 'They're doing the Willow on me.' Buffy finished training for the night and returned to her room.  
  
*** 


	6. Chapter Five

Disclaimer: I do not own Highlander or Buffy, unfortunately. The reason I wrote this story is not for monetary value, but for entertainment only.  
  
The next night, not only Ritchie, but Duncan also followed her when she went on patrol. This night would end like no other since her death at the Master's hands.  
  
***  
  
Buffy started in a different area of Seacouver this time. She had heard Ritchie and Duncan, but didn't pay them any attention.  
  
In one alley, near the museum, a woman was being attacked by a vampire.  
  
Buffy quietly crept up on them.  
  
"Hey, Mr. Gruesoome," Buffy called once she was behind the vamp.  
  
The vampire turned around and Buffy could sense his power.  
  
"Why don't you pick on someone your own size?"  
  
"Like, you!" The guy said in a gruff voice.  
  
"Well, its a start," Buffy said and took off running out of the alley, leading him away from the lady and Ritchie and Duncan.  
  
She led him into the city park that sat close to the alley and then realized that the vamp had been smarter than she had anticipated. He'd had a small horde of vampires waiting for her in the park.  
  
They grabbed her all at once and, even with her Slayer strength, she couldn't handle five vampires holding onto each of her arms.  
  
"Well, Slayer. Its too bad it has to end this way for you, but . . ." the vamp darted forward, burying his fangs into her neck, draining her almost to the point of death when she heard a shout and the vampires dropped her.  
  
Buffy opened her eyes, which were getting heavier, and saw Duncan and Ritchie leap out of the bushes, swords in their hands.  
  
It didn't even occur to her to wonder why they were carrying swords. with the last of her failing strength, in a voice she knew they would hear, she said, "cut off their heads."  
  
And then, for the second time in her young life, Buffy Anne Summers died at the hands of a vampire.  
  
***  
  
They had both heard Buffy tell them to cut their heads off, so without hesitation, they started hacking the heads off the vampires.  
  
When they were all dead, Duncan lifted Buffy into his arms and, quickly and quietly, he and Ritchie returned to the dojo to wait for Buffy to wake up.  
  
*** 


	7. Chapter Six

Disclaimer: I do not own Highlander or Buffy, unfortunately. The reason I wrote this story is not for monetary value, but for entertainment only.  
  
The first thing Buffy though of when she came back to life was a need for oxygen. There was no air in her lungs and she gasped for breath.  
  
Then, she realized she was alive. 'I'm alive!' she thought to herself and remembered how the vampire had drained her of blood.  
  
She remembered how Ritchie and Duncan had come leaping out of the shadows, swords in hand.  
  
Suddenly, she realized someone was watching her. Her eyes flew open and she looked straight at Duncan.  
  
"How am I alive?" she asked him.  
  
"First, we have to get food into you." Duncan said and started to leave the room.  
  
Buffy, upset that she had died AGAIN at the hands of a vampire, jumped up off the sofa and shouted, "No! We talk about this now!"  
  
"Fine, one minute. Ritchie, bring Buffy something to eat." Duncan called and sat down again behind his desk. "Okay, Buffy. What do you want to know?"  
  
"What are you and Ritchie?"  
  
"Well, we are Immortal. I was born in the highlands of Scotland four hundred years ago. Ritchie is twenty-seven when, ten years ago, I caught him stealing from an antique store I ran with my fiancée. One year later, they were both shot by an assassin. They both died, but Ritchie was a Pre-Immortal, so he came back."  
  
Buffy digested all this information before Duncan continued.  
  
"When you came into the dojo, I could feel you. You were already an Immortal. Although I couldn't figure out if you knew or not."  
  
Buffy thought back to a year earlier when she had died at the Master's hands.  
  
"Now," Duncan said as Ritchie came into the room with the lunch he had made for Buffy, " can you tell us more about yourself?"  
  
"Where to begin? Well, probably at the beginning. When I went to school at Hemery in L.A., a man named Merrick, who was my first Watcher, came to me. He told me that I was the Chosen One and I had a destiny to kill the vampires. Unfortunately, Merrick was killed by an old vampire, whom I then killed. Then, after I burned down the gym at Hemery, my mom moved us to Sunnydale."  
  
Buffy took a drink from her soda then continued her story.  
  
"In Sunnydale, I met my new Watcher, Giles. I stopped, on my first three days in Sunnydale, a massacre with the help of Giles and my two new friends, Xander and Willow. Then, toward the end of the school year, I drowned because the Master vampire dumped me in a pool of water after drinking some of my blood. My friend, Xander, performed CPR on me and brought me back to life. I killed the Master. We skip ahead a few months until we get to my seventeenth birthday. My boyfriend, until this time, had been a 243-year-old vampire named Angel."  
  
Duncan's breath hissed through his teeth as he remembered the many deaths that someone named Angelus and William the Bloody had been responsible for.  
  
"Angel's soul had been returned to him almost a century before, but, on my seventeenth birthday, Angel and I made love and his soul was taken from him. After months of him tormenting and torturing me, I went after him one night after getting kicked out of school, out of my house, and after the Slayer that had been called after I died was killed. My friend, Willow, had found a spell to return his soul to him, but it was too late. I had to kill my boyfriend to save the world. And, here I am."  
  
Duncan and Ritchie sat quietly though all of this.  
  
"What do you want me to do?" Buffy asked, afraid they would kick her out.  
  
"How about I complete your training with the sword, teach you about the Game, and we'll go from there." Duncan said with a smile.  
  
Buffy smiled back. This was the happiest she'd been in a long time.  
  
*** 


	8. Epilogue

Disclaimer: I do not own Highlander or Buffy, unfortunately. The reason I wrote this story is not for monetary value, but for entertainment only.  
  
And that was how I learned about my Immortality.  
  
Duncan finished my training and I grew stronger.  
  
I realized in about mid-August that I had to return to Sunnydale to protect my friends.  
  
There can be only one.  
  
*** 


End file.
